Russia minister on mobilisation plan with rare admission of Moscow's losses

Russia-Ukraine War: Russia will take necessary steps to defend its sovereignty and will defend territory with all available means, Putin said.

Russia's defense minister Sergey Shoigu said 300,000 reservists will be mobilized affecting one per cent of 25 million resources in a pre-recorded interview after Russian President announced partial mobilisation in Russia.

Russia-Ukraine War: Ukrainian serviceman checks a destroyed Russian Armoured Personnel Carrier (APC). (Reuters)

Russia will take necessary steps to defend its sovereignty and will defend territory with all available means, Putin said in an address.

Shoigu said that students and those who served as conscripts would not be called up, and that the majority of Russia's millions-strong reserves would not be drafted.

Sergei Shoigu also said that 5,937 Russian soldiers have died in Ukraine since the February military intervention, in a rare admission of military losses from Moscow.

"Our losses for today are 5,937 dead," Shoigu said in televised remarks, adding that Russia is "fighting not so much Ukraine as the collective West" in Ukraine.